Archive for April, 2008

Last weekend, I had brought the boat down from Wisconsin, so I decided to put it to good use.  I wanted to see if I could pick up some early spring bass or northern at Blackwell.

I arrived and launched the boat at about 1:30 pm.  The weather was cool, from the very late spring.  It was very overcast and windy (north) as a stormy front was quickly moving in.

A front moving in spurred on what little fish action there was.

With a few other boats on the water, I decided to work the empty southern end of the lake.  I picked the wind blown shorline where weeds were just beginning to sprout.  I was throwing a small brown swimbait with an inline spinner on the front.  The area I was working was a small point that came out into the water.  The depth was only about 4 feet on either side.  I did a slow retrieve just over the bottom where the weeds were.

Only a few casts into the trip, I feel a slight tap at the end of the line.  With hardly any fight, probably due to the cold, I pulled this small northern out of the water.

A small northern by any standards, but it still made me happy.

Only about 10 minutes later and a few casts, and I felt another weight at the end of the line.  Once again, there was no fight, it just dragged as I reeled in.  This time, it was a bass.

They call these small bass "Blackwell Specials" due to how common they are at this lake.

I worked the drift for a while longer, and got a few short strikes on my lure.  The wind continued to pick up stronger and the rain began to fall.  I decided it was not worth it to stay out and headed back in.  It wasn’t bad for the first outing of 2008 in the boat.

Fish Totals
1 Largemouth Bass
1 Northern Pike